Antecendent
by SunnyWinterClouds
Summary: He's happy she saved his life - not happy with the way she did it.


**Judging by the look Peter gave Liv over the roof buildings, he's a little upset with her. Or at least freaked out. this came about.**

She knows he's mad at her.

No, that's not right - she managed to stop him from being killed, took down David Robert Jones, and may or may not have saved the universes. He's not _allowed_ to be mad at her. But he's definitely upset, brooding and silent on the car ride home. They haven't heard from Walter or Astrid, yet, but she's too focused on Peter to let her thoughts stray elsewhere.

He won't look at her. And when he does, it's a scientists glare, his brow furrowed with thought and his eyes a furious dark blue as if she's an improbable equation that he needs to solve _now._ She can only imagine what's going on in his mind right now - just one glance at his face lets her know that the gears in his head are turning at full speed. She absentmindedly wonders if she'd be able to read his mind if she tried hard enough - if she can control his limbs, how is transmitting his thoughts into her own brain any weirder?

She stops herself there. He's clearly unhappy with her current invasion of his privacy, and she's positive he wouldn't be too enthusiastic about having her in his head again. Besides, he's a _genius_, with an IQ of 190 and an incredible ability to speak Walter and even relate to what he's saying. She's smart, but she's only human.

Or maybe not. She doesn't even know anymore.

She lets her eyes dart to the man in the passenger's seat once more, and he's glimmering.

Olivia is scared.

"Hey," she whispers, and his head jerks her way. She has obviously snapped him out of deep thought, with the way he flinches slightly at her quiet voice and looks surprised by her mere presence. He gives her a forced smile, and even something so fake on his face is beautiful, and she struggles to keep her eyes on the road instead of unbuckling her seat belt and crawling into his arms to make them both feel better.

"Hey."

She cautiously lets one hand off of the steering wheel to rest it gently on his thigh, not missing the tense of his muscles as reciprocation to her touch. It hurts, hurts like hell that he's wary of her, that her intrusion into his mind may have altered the way he feels for her, even if she was terrified that she'd lose him and desperate to keep him alive and she was only taking advantage of the powers that she'd only hours ago wished she didn't have.

_Do you still love me?_, she wants to ask.

"How's your arm?" is the question she goes with, because she is a coward and she really doesn't want to know the answer to that just yet. Besides, he's been clutching his shoulder since it had been injured on the rooftop, refusing to let her look at it after she'd checked out Jones's body and gave him an unreturned hug. She's truly worried about him.

"It's fine," he responds flatly, and resumes staring out the window.

That's when she gets _mad._

Olivia Dunham is not well known for having an even temper, but she can usually dim down whatever anger she might have when she's around someone she really cares about. Her and Peter rarely fight, when they do it's with only slightly raised voices and wild hand gestures as they take out their frustrations on the air around them. They always hug, in the end, because their fights are all work-related and when it comes down to it they're just afraid of losing each other.

But right now Peter is being stupid, and ungrateful, because _she saved his life_ and if it weren't for her he would have taken Jones's place as the sacrifice. Her anger fades slightly at the thought of his body lying there, lifeless, his blank face crumbling into ash and her helpless to save the only man she's ever really loved, but she's not going to let her feelings for Peter stop her from being furious with him.

"You're being ridiculous, Peter. You'd be dead if I hadn't done it. Stop being a bitchy little girl and man up."

He raises an eyebrow at her, and she knows he's slipped into a sardonic suit of armour to deflect her words. He does that when it hurts to care.

"Who ever said I was upset?"

"Come off it. I saved your life in an _unconventional_ manner and you're repaying me by being a thoughtless jerk."

He gives her a small smile, not humourous but not entirely sincere. "Just thinking, Liv," he murmurs, and the nickname doesn't fail to calm her down a bit. He _has_ been through a lot tonight, and she knows what it's like to not be in control of your own limbs, to have your mind overrun by someone else, so she'll give him a break just this once.

"What was it like?" she asks, because sometimes she wishes he'd ask her that. He doesn't bring up William Bell taking over her body, _ever,_ and when he does he doesn't say anything that he thinks might make her upset or uncomfortable. He's gentle with her, at times, even though he knows she can handle it, knows she's probably a hell of a lot stronger than him anyway. So he doesn't ask, doesn't delve into unhappy moments of her past, even though occasionally she wishes he would, so she'd have a reason to talk about it when she's got too much weighing on her mind.

"Eerie," he says after a moment. "It was eerie."

She moves her hand from his knee to his uninjured arm in a silent message for him to go on. He thinks about if for another little while.

"Kind of like watching yourself, I guess. Like you're a different person. You see it happening, and you're doing it, but you're _not_ doing it." He offers her a small smile, which she returns. A short silence falls over them.

"I'm sorry," she finally says, "For doing that. I got scared. You _are_ the only one who can trigger my abilities."

He gives her a lopsided grin, the first genuine one she's seen from him as of late, and it eases the knot in her stomach she hadn't even realised she had until now.

"What about _Jessica?_ Should I be worried?"

She ducks her head down as she laughs silently, relieved that at least his sense of humour has returned. She just gives him a slightly flirtatious smile and puts her eyes back on the road, because she's really not paying too close attention to her driving right now.

"I'm not upset with you," he says finally, not looking at her. "You saved me. I'm thankful. I'm just... freaked out. And thinking."

"I get that," she whispers, drawing circles on his coat with her thumb. "I understand."

And then, because she can't help it, she adds, "I love you."

_Now_ he has what is definitely a real smile on his face as tells her he loves her, too.

(_Two hours later, after she's shot through the heart and dies for just a minute before the Cortexiphan heals her, he's the one scared and so in love it hurts._)


End file.
